King spent her teenage years in New York City, but she has also lived in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Upon graduating from Elisabeth Irwin High School,[11] she moved to Philadelphia to matriculate at University of the Arts, studying painting and film.[11] During these college years, she had an artistic epiphany seeing a live show where the band onstage used a banjo purely for accompaniment purposes, eschewing the bluegrass and country musical vocabulary traditionally associated with the instrument. King then began to use the banjo as a compositional tool. After college, she briefly lived in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, before moving back to New York where she currently resides in Bushwick, Brooklyn.[6]

In 1999, she debuted as an actress in her father's film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.[11] In 2005, at age 16, she started gigging around New York City, using a fake ID to gain entry to the local nightclubs.[6] King immersed herself in the local songwriting scene and honed her performance skills by busking around town. King was then signed by newly appointed RCA Chairman Peter Edge.[12] Her debut single "Good To Be A Man", was released on March 13, 2012, as a digital download and also as a 7" vinyl single.[12] On June 12, 2012, the four-song The Elle King EP was released on RCA.[12] The EP was recorded in New York and was produced by Andy Baldwin and Chris DeStefano, with King herself producing a track. The EP's lead track, "Playing for Keeps", was chosen as the theme song for VH1's Mob Wives Chicago series that premiered on June 10, 2012, on VH1.[6]

King started dating Andrew Ferguson in January 2016. The couple met in a hotel lobby in London and got engaged twelve days later on a sailing trip around the San Francisco Bay.[28] They married on February 14, 2016 and confirmed their intent to divorce on May 15, 2017. On April 23, 2017, Ferguson was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence after allegedly grabbing King by the throat and threatening to kill her, though this charge was later dropped.[29] King and Ferguson briefly reconciled in late 2017.[30] As of October 2018, King is in a new relationship.[31]